My money’s on the latter. What! You mean I can’t put a bet on the election outcome? Not even the teeniest flutter? What if I send the cat down to the bookies instead? Oh alright, I’ll just do it in my head then seeing as how the current Government haven’t yet used AI to create Thought Police.
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| Not going to the Bookies - too busy sitting on your bit of wood |
As the politicos ramp up their final few days of electioneering, it’s time for us to ramp up efforts to get this library bookcase assembled and that’s not going to be easy as I’ve definitely reached the ‘apathy rules OK’ point in this project and would rather be gardening.
Back to the task in hand. To minimise the ‘wonk’ assembly factor, we’re using the nice flat surface of our dining table as a workbench since there’s no-where else big enough or level enough for us to work on.
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| Wish we had a proper workshop |
Starting with the sides of the ‘H’ shape, begin by screwing into position the top and bottom horizontal shelves so that you have a fancy shaped ‘H’ with two cross pieces instead of one. Fitting these in first should provide greater stability when adding the rest of the shelves.
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| First make a wooden 'H' shape |
Continue to add shelves at your required heights then repeat for the second unit.
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| Continue to add shelves |
The key thing here is to ensure that all the horizontal shelves are visually aligned so that they run across both units forming one continuous line. Achieving this is quite tricky, often involving fitting both units backwards in situ so that shelf positions can be accurately marked out onto the back face.
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| Horizontal shelves should all be visually aligned |
It’s at this point that I’ve realised that I really hate furniture making. I’m such a perfectionist that even the smallest millimetre out sends me into a volcanic rage. I can’t bear to see things ‘on the piss’ so there’s always a few tantrums or tears when after what seems like a super-human effort, things don’t turn out right.
At first glance our almost finished bookcase units look pretty good, most shelves aligned but it's only when you get up close with the tape measure and spirit level that you begin to realise that all is not perfect. Yeah, there are some shelves a teeny bit higher than others and a few that slope towards the edges. We gave it our best shot!
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| Bookcase assembled and ready for compartment fitting |
When all is said and done, I think it’s a pretty good effort for a couple of old duffers like us.
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